Top 10 Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Companies in India
07/02/2025
In an organization where engineers build the product, designers take care of the design, and salespeople sell it to you, the product manager is the one who bridges the gaps existing among these three roles, ensuring product success. Hiring a product manager should be a number 1 priority for you if you are planning to build a product and sell it to prospective customers.
Who is the Product Manager?
Before you get down to hiring a product manager, you must understand what the role is responsible for. A product manager is a person responsible for the development of a product or product line. He/she considers what the product is trying to achieve and how it will help customers. In doing so, a product manager works on product strategy, features and unique selling points to ensure the product’s success.
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Product Manager?
1. Clear Vision and a Working Strategy
A product manager will have a clear vision of the final product and will take the team towards that. They will also have enough expertise to suggest the best strategy to make it happen.
2. Clear Understanding of the Customer’s Needs
There is also a need to understand the customers’ needs in a better way, which product managers are very good at. They jot down what the customer expects from the product and include just those features with a few more to pique their curiosity.
3. Product Success is Almost Guaranteed
A product manager would have managed the development of similar products in the past and would have a better idea of how to get things right to ensure that the product stands out in the market.
4. Faster Time to Market
The experience they have also helps the product manager ensure that the product moves to market much faster and that the progress from a minimum viable product to a full-fledged one is really quick.
5. Data-Driven Decisions
A product manager will be helped by AI tools which will give him clear insights into what features to include and what not to, and this could be the difference between a great product and an average one.
How to Hire a Product Manager?
If yours is a company hiring a product manager, then here are some tips that will help you hire the best product managers in India.
1. Hire Someone Who Is Logical and Intelligent
If you are a company hiring a product manager, then hire a person who is very intelligent. If there is a choice between a very experienced product manager of average intelligence and a product manager of requisite experience but very high intelligence, then opt for the second candidate.
2. Look for a Strong Technical Background
A strong technical background is very good. Ensure that the person has actual experience of working with a company that has built a similar product and has good experience there. This will greatly simplify the interactions they have with the engineers. If the person also has a technical degree that is relevant, then this is even better.
3. Find Creative People with a Natural Product Instinct
Sometimes people just know something is wrong with a product even before they actually begin to inspect and qualify it. This is something that cannot be learned. For this, the candidate must have a strong point of view and be able to tell you something about your product you haven’t noticed this far.
4. Must Be a Good Leader
A product manager must be a capable leader, unafraid to make big decisions, stand by what they believe, and guide other members of the product team in the right direction. It will be great if the position of a leader is something they have earned over some time and with great effort. Other related traits are active listening, open to admitting mistakes, and changing courses effectively when there is a need to.
5. Strong Communication & Guidance Skills Are Essential
It is important that the product manager knows how to interact not just with the engineers but with the sales and marketing teams and designers too. They must ask the right questions, understand each department’s roles and responsibilities very clearly, and guide each person in times of difficulty.
What Are the Challenges when Hiring a Product Manager?
There are many challenges associated with hiring a product manager. Some of these challenges are:
1. Finding the Best Talent
Finding the best talent can be very difficult, as there is still a scarcity of great talent. And even if you do, the talent needs to be relevant to your line of work. If they have technical know-how, then they must be able to help you too with their knowledge and skills.
2. Assessing Product Management Capabilities
Assessing a product manager’s capabilities is not easy. You will need to design the right screening assessments, ask the right interview questions and pose the right problems, inviting them to solve it in the best manner possible.
3. A great cultural fit too
The product manager must be a great cultural fit in your organization, as they would be working with people from different teams. They must not only be highly resourceful but patient, smart and kind to arrive at the right product strategy and solutions.
4. Deciding Between Experience and Intelligence
Sometimes you have to make the tough calls, the ones that are very important for your company. This could involve deciding between an experienced person and a very intelligent one. Only an expert recruiter can decide which is more important than the other and why.
5. Negotiating the Right Pay
Believe it or not, though this comes last, this could be the most difficult one of them all. It is not easy to negotiate the salary of a product manager. You must have a clear picture of what they are expected to accomplish even before you hire them, and how they will support the other teams you have.
How Can Alp Consulting Help You Hire a Product Manager?
Add the word ‘great’ before product manager, because not everyone is equally good at product management. Alp Consulting, a reputable recruitment and staffing partner with over 25 years of experience, can help you hire a great product manager, one who will ensure that the final product has all the necessary features and goes to the market well-tested and completely usable and beneficial for the end customer. Talk to us today. We are waiting to hear from you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What are the key skills to looking for in a product manager?
An ability to visualize and strategize for the product is the first skill necessary. The other key skills to look for in a product manager are creativity, problem-solving abilities, great with numbers and AI, and a good leader and mentor for anyone seeking answers.
2. What should a product manager’s job description include?
A product manager job description must have keywords like product strategy, product management etc. It must highlight the importance of rational and customer-centric thinking. Highly developed intelligence is also well regarded.
3. What are common hiring mistakes when recruiting product managers?
The common hiring mistakes when recruiting product managers are hiring less talented candidates, not negotiating the salary well, not considering the cultural fit of the candidate, and not making the right experience vs intelligence decision.
4. What are the benefits of hiring a product manager?
The benefits of a company hiring a product manager are a well-outlined vision and strategy for the product. A product manager will also help reduce the time to market and make sure the customers love the product.
5. How can a recruitment agency help with hiring a product manager?
A recruitment agency can help a lot when it comes to hiring a product manager. They can find the best talent, design the right assessments, get the right people to interview, and even negotiate the best and most feasible salary offers you could think of.
